Listen to poem:
Jesus In Town
Jesus in Town
David J Walker
Jesus could explain life like no other
Riding in the back of the 56 Chevy pickup
The Farm to Market roads
Crossing the country of a summer
Lost in Lea County
New Mexico
We work
They pay
Is about all he would say
in broken English
Nosotros trabajamos
ellos juegan
in his TexMex Spanish
Someone else is getting rich
My uncle would btch about
Matters of money all day driving
the John Deere tractor
dragging a cultivator
over dirt as cracked and dry as his lips
A lit Pall Mall cigarette dangling
from the corner of his mouth
Smoking and swearing
there was never any money
At the end of any month
on this G-Damn rock farm
At night Aunt Nora put a hot supper
On the Formica-top table in the kitchen
Over the linoleum floor
Are you trading for a new truck
She asked
But she knew the answer
Maybe
said Uncle Ed
she knew he would
If he could
after the harvest
The Farmhouse was
six miles from town and
At night
When the fireflies came out
And the cicadas sang their
Monotonous seasonal songs
We sat on lawn chairs looking at
The distant lights in town
As if it might be a
Better place to go
There might be a
picture show
with newsreels and
cartoons
and popcorn
The paper comes only once
A week so I never know
What’s showing or going on
Jesus said there was a
Mexican Movie in town
And he might go
But
He never does
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